Act two
JOHN BECHTOLD is a former American military officer and veteran of the Iraq War. He deployed to Iraq twice, once as a platoon leader and the second time as a combat advisor to an Iraqi infantry battalion in northern Iraq. Those two experiences continue to shape how he thinks about American militarism. He holds a master’s degree from Duke University and a PhD in American studies from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he currently lectures on war, media, and visual culture. Most recently, he curated an independent photography project featuring the work of emerging Iraqi photographers from Iraq. A portfolio of the project is archived at Duke University. His first monograph, U.S. Militarism and the Terrain of Memory: Negotiating Dead Space (Routledge, 2025), is forthcoming.
Origins of an idea
I became interested in how and why our culture idolizes a soldier hero after coming to know a group of traumatically wounded veterans who were beginning to reclaim their lives after war. I often watched others thank them for their service. It seemed to me this public response not only diverged from their lived experience in war; it also legitimized their injuries. In other words, since the military defends freedom in the public’s imagination, veteran injuries make sense as a sacrifice for others. With this in mind, I began to think about how patriotism functions in contemporary American culture — who it rewards and who it excludes.
Research interest
Patriotism has a certain aesthetic authority in American society, partly because it is reified in public performance, material culture, and cinematic representations of soldier heroism. We know to stand for the national anthem, respond with gratitude to soldiers, and some of us even wear star-spangled clothes at times. Although this patriotic display and messaging may inform our understanding of the military, it distracts our attention from a more insightful inquiry into how war affects people. And this inquiry should always include citizens from countries occupied by the U.S. military. My research seeks to reveal a more inclusive understanding about the memory of war in American culture.
